the beginning of the end of justice for Trayvon

[evanovitch]

much is being made about his Mom's statement earlier on the TODAY show where she said she believed the shooting was accidental...pundits have been rushing to say that her statement will hurt the case

my take is that u cannot have said pundits PLUS the Attorney General for Florida reiterate on other occasions that public opinion has no impact on the justice system YET NOW SEIZE on her statement to say that this statement will... to the extent that she has had to now clarify her earlier statement...

plus i dont understand how they say they cant prove intent...hello...if police tell u not to follow n u disregard dem and continue, wat was ur intent...any stranger following a one WILL intimidate the one being followed....it is reasonable to expect that one being stalked COULD turn n confront their stalker...so based on that expectation it is reasonable to believe that his continued stalking of Trayvon had the expectation of being called on it n his being armed would lead him to use said arm in that forced confrontation...

his presumption that a black person had to be followed would hold that he ALSO assumed said black person was up to nefarious means n was himself armed so he shot first but his assumptions proved to be that truism..made an [censored] of him...

i rest my case ur honour...

all this talk about reasonable doubt yet no mention of proof of malice wich is ALSO part of the second degree murder charge, leads me to believe that they arrested him to satisfy the call for an arrest but r now leading us down the path to an acquittal...after all people remember Casey Anthony....we were left to believe a likkle girl tied herself up wid duct tape an crawled in a garbage bag n the last person who was wid har an lied for months , is innocent....reasonable minds in Fl is seemingly an oxymoron wen it come to the jury pool....:sigh:

[mangoskin]

Re: the beginning of the end of justice for Trayvon

this is why she and trayvon's father need to say nothing, just let their lawyers talk for them...or better yet, wait for the court case

[remo]

Re: the beginning of the end of justice for Trayvon

only 2 people was there that night and 1 of them is dead and the other one not talikng ...

[St_Bess]

Re: the beginning of the end of justice for Trayvon

Sound argument just like the lawyer I believe you are. What I don't understand is how can he use this so-called self defense when he FOLLOWED Trayvon despite being advised NOT TO by the Police Department. He followed him and accosted him, so in effect, Trayvon was <span style="text-decoration: underline"><span style="font-weight: bold">DEFENDING HIMS</span>ELF</span> even if he broke the frigger's nose. He followed the young black man because he was wearing a hooded shirt So when he followed this young man and accosted him Trayvon should have killed his behine THEN that would have been self defense. I just don't understand how these people think.

[Emperah]

Re: the beginning of the end of justice for Trayvon

wundah wah will hapm when dem let him guh

[Skelly]

Re: the beginning of the end of justice for Trayvon

RIOT!!!!

[KleenBaggy]

Re: the beginning of the end of justice for Trayvon

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: evanovitch</div><div class="ubbcode-body">much is being made about his Mom's statement earlier on the TODAY show where <span style="font-weight: bold">she said she believed the shooting was accidental</span>...pundits have been rushing to say that her statement will hurt the case</div></div>

Even though, with all due respect, she needs to shut her trap...in the interest of <span style="font-style: italic">loose lips, sink ships</span>, they are obviously grasping on straws.

It doesn't matter what she thinks/believes/dreams. She was not there and the killer already said that he <span style="font-weight: bold">killed</span> in self defence. No one kills in self-defence, by accident.

[KleenBaggy]

Re: the beginning of the end of justice for Trayvon

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Emperah_dahJah2</div><div class="ubbcode-body">wundah wah will hapm when dem let him guh </div></div>

Hell will indeed, break loose, from the rising of the sun, to the setting of the same.

Tribal war would be declared. This ain't no Casey Anthony deal. They are playing with a different set of chips with this one here. Trust me!

[SmoothOperator]

Re: the beginning of the end of justice for Trayvon

In Florida the jury have the option of convicting on a lesser charge, no? So maybe they aiming high, if they don't get 2nd degree murder maybe they get manslaughter.

[R_C]

Re: the beginning of the end of justice for Trayvon

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: evanovitch</div><div class="ubbcode-body">....all this talk about reasonable doubt yet no mention of proof of malice wich is ALSO part of the second degree murder charge, leads me to believe that they arrested him to satisfy the call for an arrest but r now leading us down the path to an acquittal...after all people remember Casey Anthony.... </div></div>

I was thinking about the Casey Anthony case myself. Many people said that if she had been charged with voluntary manslaughter or second degree murder instead of 1st degree murder, she would be in jail now because those charges don't require proof of deliberation or premeditation by the defendant.

So now, the question is, how do you go from 'No Arrest/No Charge' to 2nd degree murder ? You have to prove an intent to kill. I am not sure how Zimmerman following Trayvon against orders from 911 proves (in a court of law that is) that he intended to kill him. Unless of course the prosecutor has evidence that has not been released to the public. Even manslaughter is tricky under the stand your ground statute.

This man is going to be set free. And at the end of the day, his parents will be left to sit at home in the quiet of the evening and all alone, after all the camera crews have left and the media have moved on to something else, and all they will be left with is a dead son and no justice.

[evanovitch]

Re: the beginning of the end of justice for Trayvon

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: TreyJ</div><div class="ubbcode-body">In Florida the jury have the option of convicting on a lesser charge, no? So maybe they aiming high, if they don't get 2nd degree murder maybe they get manslaughter. </div></div>

normally i would concede that this was the intent..HOWEVER, u have the law on the books,,the Stand Your Ground LAW....to find him guilty would be to set precedent to have that law overturned...i have no faith that the electorate in Fl would see dat happen....see wat happen to the Hispanic coach who purportedly made wat was construed as a compliment re Fidel...him deh pon suspension...how many years since di Bay of Pigs n one cannot have an opinion if it is seen to be in favour of Fidel...YET we light the symbol of America in red to celebrate the Chinese Revolution....go figure...look to the case in TEXAS whe di man stayed on the phone wile killing di hispanics he saw in his nayba yaad even as the police told him not to go outside n go ovah deh..under their law he was set free

[Gen]

Re: the beginning of the end of justice for Trayvon

<span style="font-weight: bold">New Shocking ‘Stand Your Ground’ Case, But Florida Unlikely To Revisit Law</span>
by Paul Canning April 2, 2012 8:30 pm




A new decision under Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ law has thrown more light on the controversy surrounding how it is being used.

<span style="font-weight: bold">A judge appointed by former Florida Republican Governor Charlie Crist used the law to rule that a bag of stolen car radios — swung during a confrontation — amounted to a lethal threat</span>.

Last week, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Beth Bloom used the law to dismiss a murder charge against a man who chased down a thief and stabbed him to death.

<span style="font-weight: bold">Greyston Garcia had pursued Pedro Roteta for more than a block before stabbing him on January 25. When Garcia caught up with him, Roteta swung the bag and as Garcia blocked the bag with his arm, he stabbed Roteta with a single, fatal knife thrust to the chest.</span>

Garcia had claimed that Roteta had a screwdriver in his hand. Garcia’s defense attorney also said Roteta had an open pocket knife in his hand during the chase. However, police found a folded-up knife in the dead man’s pocket.

Bloom wrote that a “medical examiner conceded that a 4-6 pound bag of metal being swung at one’s head would lead to serious bodily injury or death.”

She said that although the confrontation was captured on video surveillance, the images were too grainy to clearly tell what happened.

Garcia did not call police or 911, but went home and fell asleep. He later sold two of the car radios and hid the knife.

He initially denied involvement to police until the video surveillance was shown to him.

The peculiarities of ‘Stand Your Ground’ law means that a self-defense claim means a judge alone can stop such a case coming to trial.

Prosecutors were stunned by the judge’s ruling. So was Miami police Sgt. Ervens Ford, who headed up the homicide investigation. He told The Herald’s David Ovalle that Judge Bloom’s decision was a “travesty of justice.”

Miami-Dade Chief Assistant State Attorney Kathleen Hoague said her office would appeal the decision because “we feel the judge abused her discretion.”

“The law does not allow for you to use deadly force to retrieve your property. She, in effect, is saying that it’s appropriate to chase someone down with a knife to get property back,” said Hoague, who stressed that a jury should weigh the merits of the case.

Despite this judge’s decision, Rep. Dennis Baxley, who sponsored ‘Stand Your Ground’ in 2005, claims that “there’s nothing in the statute that provides for any kind of aggressive action, in terms of pursuit and confront.”

<span style="text-decoration: underline">Other ‘travesties of justice’</span>

In an Editorial — “Revoke this license to kill” — the Miami Herald argues for the repeal of the law. They say:

The law is poorly understood, unevenly applied throughout the state and, worst of all, has become a license to kill under a variety of suspect circumstances.

Fred Grimm in the Herald catalogs other cases in Florida he calls ‘travesties of justice.’

<span style="font-weight: bold">In 2009, </span>a drug deal gone wrong led to a dangerous car chase through Miami streets. Anthony Gonzalez Jr., aka “White Boy,” shot the driver of the car he was pursuing but the case never went to trial. Gonzalez was deemed acting under the permissive parameters of the ‘Stand Your Ground’ doctrine.

<span style="font-weight: bold">A former Broward County deputy sheriff</span> who pumped four rounds into an aggressive panhandler outside a Miami Lakes ice cream parlor saw no charges.

<span style="font-weight: bold">Nour Badi Jarkas</span>, who had shot his estranged wife’s boyfriend four times inside her house in 2009, was also let off, with the judge saying that, “nothing was presented … to rebut the reasonableness of the fear that [Jarkas] testified that he had.”

<span style="font-weight: bold">Two workers wearing blue shirts and pith helmets were shot </span>at as they went to switch off a mobile home owner’s electricity. The Judge “following the dictates of Stand Your Ground,” decided that the shooter’s claim that he feared for his life was not unreasonable. Two counts of armed assault and one count of improper exhibition of a firearm were dismissed.

The Stand Your Ground law was passed in 2005 based on just one case, that of 77-year-old James Workman who shot and killed an intruder in his hurricane-ravaged home.

He was never charged because of the existing legal concept known as the “Castle Doctrine.” However, the NRA used the case to push for a new law which dramatically expanded the right to use deadly force almost anywhere a person feels ‘reasonably threatened.’

The Legislature offered no evidence of Floridians being wrongly charged or convicted after legally exercising their right to self-defense.

Since its passage, reports of justifiable homicides have tripled, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Defenders of the law have claimed it has led to a dramatic drop in violent crime, but Politifact has found that there is no evidence linking the two.

Versions of the law are now in place in 25 states. Self-defense killings have nearly doubled during the last decade.

Some Florida lawmakers are pushing for the law to be at least ‘clarified.’ Governor Rick Scott has said there will be public hearings, however, as Republicans in the state legislature are resisting any debate there. Florida Democratic Party Chair, Rod Smith, who cosponsored the bill as a state senator in 2005, is also still backing the law.

Marc Caputo writing in the Herald weighed the chances of any change:

<span style="font-weight: bold">Chances state lawmakers will strike the deadly force law from the books: Nil.

Chances it will be amended: Slight.

Chances the NRA will get to boast of a win: High.</span>

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/new-shocking...l#ixzz1rseloqv8

[j-kid]

Re: the beginning of the end of justice for Trayvon

Is she nuts?! Maybi fatigue ah set in!

[j-kid]

Re: the beginning of the end of justice for Trayvon

Di police does, all di time. Sometimes, even ah mysterious gun/pen/cell phone show up from out of nowhere as proof.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: KqrowBait</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> No one kills in self-defence, by accident. </div></div>

[evanovitch]

should Judge be recused..she should i believe

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Sanforld, Florida (WKMG) -- The attorney for George Zimmerman, who's charged with murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, said he will likely filing a motion for the judge to recuse herself from the case because of a possible conflict of interest.

During a 10-minute status hearing that was held Friday in Seminole County, attorney Mark O'Mara said the filing of the motion to have Circuit Court Judge Jessica Recksiedler removed may be &quot;imminent.&quot; Zimmerman was not present for the hearing.

O'Mara became Zimmerman's attorney after being recommended by attorney Mark NeJame, who was contacted by Zimmerman's family. Recksiedler's husband works at NeJame's law firm.

&quot;If you choose to file a motion to disqualify me as judge, it has to be filed in writing for me to address it,&quot; Recksiedler said. &quot;If you do choose to file, we do have a bond hearing set for next Friday,&quot; she said, asking that the motion be filed before then.
</div></div>


<span style="font-weight: bold">i think she should recuse herself...the connection can n u know will be used , if needed, in any post conviction appeal....dat is a wide open channel so y not dam it from now</span>...of course my looking to post CONVICTION appeals is positive thinking...